Rome (Italy) On 23 November 2020, the Provincials of the CIAO East Asia Interprovincial Conference and the delegates to GC XXIV met via a virtual platform with the General Councilor referent for CIAO, Sr. Maria Assunta Inoue Sumiko.
Objectives of the meeting were the sharing of some proposals for animation in view of the XXIV General Chapter and the ways to bring the results of the work done by the Communities on the Working Document to the next CIAO meeting. Another point taken into consideration was the work of the CIAO Schools Commission, where it was found that despite the pandemic period, it was possible to carry out an intense formation journey.
After the greeting of Sr. Mabel Pilar, Provincial of St. Mary Mazzarello Province (FIL) and CIAO referent, the word was passed to Sr. Maria Assunta, who updated the participants on the situation of the Institute in this time of the Covid-19 pandemic and recalled the painful situations that some countries of the Conference are experiencing for various reasons, ensuring support and prayer.
In her presentation, she addressed the issue of generativity with a phrase by Ignazio Punzi, formator and psychologist, who in his book “Embrace the future with hope. Filiality and fraternity in consecrated life today” he affirms: “To inherit means discovering the seeds of the future that others have planted in our life, kneading them with one’s talents and one’s vocation and making one’s reality a unique and unrepeatable story.”
She then wished the Provincials: “So be it for your Provinces, for the CIAO Interprovincial Conference and for the entire Institute. We want to pass on the inheritance received to the new generations as a good treasure, helping each other to go beyond our shortcomings, to enrich ourselves together with the resources of each.”
The online meeting allowed the Provincials of the CIAO Interprovincial Conference and the other participants to meet again, after months of ‘social distance’, to continue the journey together with renewed enthusiasm, in a style of fraternity and synodality.
